Euroleague Basketball Top 16 Draw procedures

The draw for the Top 16, the second phase of the 2006-07 Euroleague Basketball season, will be held at 13:00 CET on Monday, February 5 in Barcelona, Spain. The Top 16 Draw will be broadcast live on Euroleague.net in its entirety from the site of the event, the Sagrada Familia room of the AC Barcelona Hotel. Draw procedures call for the 16 qualified teams to be divided according to the final regular season standings into four new groups of four teams each The teams will be selected from four different draw levels. In the first lever will be three regular season group winners and the best second-placed team overall. In the second level, there will be the other two second-place and the two best third-place teams. The worst third-place and three fourth-place teams will be on the third level and the fourth level will be occupied by the three fifth-place and the best sixth-place team overall. It is intended that no teams from the same regular season or country coincide in a Top 16 group, however that cannot be respected 100% due to three regular season groups having to be placed in four new ones. Therefore, the draw will have two restrictions: namely, that no more than two teams from the same regular season group nor two teams from the same country may coincide in the same Top 16 group. Priority will be given to the first restriction, non-coincidence of teams from the same regular season group. The game dates of the Top 16 are February 14-15, February 21-22, February 28-March 1, March 7-8, March 14-15, and March 21-22. The best two teams in each Top 16 group will advance to the Quarterfinal Playoffs.

1.-GROUP DRAW

A.- CRITERIA

The Draw of the Groups will be held according to levels. The 16 classified teams will be divided into four levels of four teams each, based on their final standings in the Regular Season, according to the following chart.

TOP 16 Draw levels

Level 1*

CSKA Moscow

Tau Ceramica

Panathinaikos

Dynamo*

Level 2*

Winterthur FCB

Maccabi Tel Aviv

Olympiacos

Benetton Treviso

Level 3*

DKV Joventut**

Efes Pilsen

Pau-Orthez

Unicaja

Level 4*

Lottomatica

Aris TT Bank

Prokom Trefl

Partizan***

* best second-place team** worst third-place team*** best sixth-place teamIn accordance with the Euroleague Regulations, the criteria to define the classification will be as follows:

1.- REGULAR SEASON: the final classification in each group will be based first on the highest number of victories, then in accordance with the Euroleague tiebreak procedures for teams that have played each other twice.

EUROLEAGUE TIEBREAKERS

When all teams have played each other twice:

1.

Best record in head-to-head games between all tied teams.

2.

Higher cumulative score difference in head-to-head games between all tied teams.

3.

Higher cumulative score difference for the entire Top 16.

4.

Higher total of points scored for the entire Top 16.

5.

Higher sum of quotients of points in favor and points against of each match played.

2.- The best second-place team, the worst third-place team, and the best sixth-place team will be determined first by highest number of victories, then in accordance with the Euroleague tiebreak procedures.

EUROLEAGUE TIEBREAKERS

When teams have NOT played each other:

1.

Higher cumulative score difference for the entire regular season.

2.

Higher total of points scored for the entire regular season.

3.

Higher sum of quotients of points in favor and points against of each match played.

Four draws will be held, one for each level, starting with the first level, and following with the procedure explained below.

B.- RESTRICTIONS

From the beginning of the draw, it will be avoided that teams coming from the same Regular Season group or teams from the same country coincide in the same Top 16 group.

Since it is impossible to respect these restrictions 100% (there are three Regular Season groups but four Top 16 groups / there are countries with four teams), the following conditions will be enforced:

· a) A maximum of two teams from the same Regular Season group may coincide in the same Top 16 group.· b) A maximum of two teams from the same country may coincide in the same Top 16 group.Priority between these two restrictions will be given to a), non-coincidence from Regular Season group.

C.- PROCEDURE

- Four draws will be held, one for each level, starting with the first level.- The levels will be drawn one at a time in order starting with Level 1, with each ball representing a team from the level being drawn. As the balls are drawn, the team that is picked will be placed in the next available spot in the groups following the order (D-E-F-G), taking into account the restrictions stipulated above.- From the beginning of the draw, if an incompatibility occurs with a team drawn, that team will go to the next available spot (i.e., next available group) until it is no longer possible to avoid incompatibilities.- If there is no compatible spot available following the above procedures, then the team in question will trade places with a team of the same level following the order of the groups (D-E-F-G).- The draw will continue with the second level in the manner explained above until all the levels have been drawn.

2.- CALENDAR DRAW

A.-CRITERIA

Once the Draw of the Groups has concluded, the Calendar Draw will be held to determine the calendar of all the Top 16 games. TOP 16 games will be held according to the following chart:

Non-coinciding numbers (when one team plays at home, the other plays away) : 1 with 3; 2 with 4.

This is the same playing chart as used in the last two seasons. In this chart you can see that the return legs of the 2nd competition will be played on the 6th competition date, and the return legs of the 3rd competition date will be held on the 5th competition date. The reason behind changing the 5th and 6th competition dates is to avoid having teams playing three consecutive games either at home or away; a situation that would not be considered appropriate on either a sporting or marketing level.

Given the above chart, the calendar for the teams is as follows:

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

Team 1

H

H

A

A

H

A

Team 2

H

A

H

A

A

H

Team 3

A

A

H

H

A

H

Team 4

A

H

A

H

H

A

H=home A=away

B. RESTRICTIONS

If there are two teams from the same city playing in the Top 16, non-coinciding numbers will be allocated to these teams to ensure there is a basketball game in that city each week. In case there are three teams from the same city, this restriction will not apply.

C. PROCEDURE

The draw will consist in the allocation of the numbers 1 to 4 to the teams of each group, taking into account the restriction explained above. This draw will establish the pairings of the entire Top 16 according to the above-mentioned chart.

There will be four draws, one per group. (D,E,F,G)

The group with the highest number of restricted teams will draw first, followed by the group with the next highest number of restricted teams. In case of groups having the same number of restricted teams, or there not being any teams with restrictions, the groups will be drawn in the order (D-E-F-G) until all the groups have been drawn.

Teams with restrictions will draw first in their group, directly assigning the corresponding number to their incompatible counterpart regardless if it is in the same group or a different one.

For the non-restricted teams the draw will follow the order from top to bottom.

If a number cannot be assigned, it will jump to the next available team.